DUELING SCREENS : Encino Mall-Builders Hope to Lure Shoppers With Theaters

Watch it, Hollywood. Projections are that Encino will have more movie theaters along its main drag than along the star-studded main street of the movie capital of the world.

Competing developers are in a race to build 18 motion-picture theaters in Encino’s business district along Ventura Boulevard. The construction frenzy would give that community 21 movie screens.

The heart of Hollywood, in contrast, has 14 movie screens along a stretch of Hollywood Boulevard.

Encino’s movie houses are proposed as the centerpieces of three new shopping centers. The community’s three existing theaters are in a fourth shopping center on Ventura Boulevard.

The picture house proliferation is causing uneasiness among theater professionals and nearby homeowners.

Encino residents warn that movie fans will cause traffic on busy Ventura Boulevard to overflow into nearby neighborhoods.

A Hard Market

But movie house experts warn that there may not be enough traffic to support so many theaters in such a small area.

“It scares the hell out of me,” said Robert W. Selig, president of the California division of the National Assn. of Theater Owners. “I can’t understand the rationale of picking that market for all those theaters.”

Upscale Encino is an attractive market for shopping center builders, however. The three rival developers anticipate that their theaters will be a magnet drawing foot traffic into their retail shops and restaurants.

They figure that parking lots in the heavily congested Encino area will be used by shoppers and workers in the daytime and by crowds of moviegoers at night.

The projects are remarkably similar in concept:

A 1,600-seat, six-screen complex is planned for a $30-million shopping center by the Security Pacific Development Co. for the north side of Ventura Boulevard, east of Encino Avenue. Dubbed “The Courtyard Shops of Encino,” it would have 820 parking spaces--550 of which would be underground and earmarked for use by moviegoers.

An 1,800-seat, six-screen complex is proposed for a $116-million shopping center by developers Jona Goldrich and David Roberts for the north side of Ventura, east of Hayvenhurst Avenue. The unnamed project would have 2,200 parking spaces, all but 200 of which would be underground.

A 1,500-seat, six-screen complex is being studied for a $22-million shopping center by developer Jason Heltzer for the north side of Ventura, east of Gaviota Avenue. His “Encino Pavilion” would have 765 parking spaces, some below ground.

Opponents of the project say show business has no business in their neighborhood.

“This is the Manhattanization of Encino,” said Gerald A. Silver, president of Homeowners of Encino. “They’re trying to make this Broadway and 42nd Street.”

Silver’s group contends that Ventura Boulevard is the wrong place to put the theaters. He said moviegoers will clog adjoining residential streets looking for a free parking places and disrupt neighborhoods late at night.

“People will be double-parked, stopping to drop people off for the show and then to pick them up. Baby-sitters waiting to pick up children will be tossing trash out. We’re going to war to fight them,” Silver said.

Richard Smith, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn., said his group is asking the developers to meet with adjoining homeowners to discuss traffic problems, landscaping and building setbacks before proceeding.

Advice on Design

Kathy Lewis, who heads the association’s zoning and development committee, said she has asked developers Goldrich and Roberts to work closely with her group as it designs its 425,000-square-foot shopping center at the former Terry York Chevrolet car lot.

Project architect Harshad Patel said initial plans call for the theaters to be on an underground level--close to a subterranean parking structure. A theater operator is yet to be signed up, but the AMC Entertainment chain is being discussed, he said.

The shopping center would include a pair of six-story buildings and a two-story building under the current proposal, Patel said. Such a design would leave plenty of open space and room for landscaping on the 6-acre site, he said.

Goldrich, of Culver City, said he and Roberts are willing to work with homeowners, although speed is important. “Because we paid so much money for the land, we have no choice but to not delay it. Time is of the essence with us,” he said.

Working With Residents

The Security Pacific Development Co. already has begun negotiations with neighbors over the 87,000-square-foot center that it hopes to build around a cinema courtyard, said company President Melvin T. Andrews.

The configuration of the theaters is still undetermined, although the complex may be operated by General Cinema Corp., Andrews said.

Architect Studhaker G. Thakurdesai let the neighbors pick the kind of fence they preferred for the rear of the project. He is continuing to discuss with residents such things as ways of minimizing theater traffic noise, Andrews said.

Security Pacific decided to give residents living behind the 4-acre site a buffer zone that contains a row of mature trees.

“There’s no reason we can’t come into agreement,” predicted one of the neighbors, Dr. Sam Jacobson.

Relations between neighbors and the Heltzer Enterprises project are apparently rockier, however.

200 Sign Petitions

Silver’s homeowner group has flatly demanded that Heltzer drop the cinemas, which may be operated by Mann Theater Corp. Petitions signed by more than 200 theater opponents were filed with city planning officials three months ago.

Last month, however, a city zoning administrator approved Heltzer’s plan. Neighbors immediately appealed the decision.

Besides demanding again that the theaters be scrapped, homeowners asked that the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals require Heltzer install a large bronze plaque on the front of his shopping center that lists restrictions such as when trash must be picked up and how greasy restaurant smoke must be controlled.

Selig, the theater trade group president, said that the developers are aware of their competitors’ cinema proposals. He said he is surprised that all three are plowing ahead with their plans.

“Either they’re gutsy, or they know something nobody else knows about the market,” Selig said.

Selig said his group hopes to establish a formula to help future theater planners determine when an area has too many movie houses.

There’s only one rule of thumb now. “The man who has the best picture on the screen wins,” Selig said.

Encino Theater Sites 1,600-seat, six-screen complex within $30-million shopping center to be developed by Security Pacific Development Co.; dubbed “The Courtyard Shops of Encino”; would have 820 parking spaces, 550 of them underground. Existing three-screen Town & Country theaters in Town & Country shopping center. 1,800-seat, six-screen complex within $116-million shopping center by developers Jona Goldrich and Dave Roberts; 2,200 parking spaces, all but 200 of which would be underground. 1,500-seat, six-screen complex within $22 million shopping center by developer Jason Heltzer; “Encino Pavilion” would have 765 parking spaces, some below ground.